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The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling sometime this month on a case that could potentially deal a hard blow to public employee unions nationwide. Progress Illinois takes a look at the possible implications of the Harris v. Quinn case.

The following is by Keith Kelleher, founder and President of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas, and an International Vice-President of SEIU.

As I follow progress of the latest anti-labor lawsuit, Harris v. Quinn, I’m reminded of the story of a homecare worker named Evelyn. She had recently arrived in the city and had acquired home care jobs -- helping with bathing, meal preparation, doing laundry, etc.

The home care work was demanding and the pay was low. Some days, because all of the extra work she did, it was less than minimum wage. Evelyn earned no benefits and had no health insurance. If she got sick, she just worked her way through whatever sickness or cold she had. She had four young children and barely had time to feed them in the morning or put them to bed at night. Her husband frequently was not around.

Earth and all of the life it sustains is in imminent danger from global climate change and from the “enforced orthodoxy’’ of its deniers, but there is still time to act and reason for hope, former Vice President Al Gore said at the University of Chicago Monday evening.

In discussing the political problems holding back environmental reforms, he spoke directly to comments made at the same University of Chicago Institute of Politics forum two weeks earlier by Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, who claimed scientists only have 100 years of “real data’’ at which to look when assessing climate change. Even as he argued against a “dumbed down” debate, his calculus suggests scientists can’t use other evidence to study historical changes in the planet that include weather and energy patterns, something with which nearly all experts disagree.

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Gov. Pat Quinn said he is willing to consider putting off the date when the the state's controversial pension reform law takes effect while the measure works its way through the courts, the Illinois Radio Network reported Monday.

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Reproductive rights advocates and several youths took to Springfield Thursday to speak out against a state law requiring parental notification before a minor can obtain abortion services.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, the Chicago Abortion Fund and the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health (ICAH) hosted the day of advocacy at the Capitol to call for a repeal of the state's Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995, a law activists say puts teens in harm's way.

"For many young women, having a family member notified is equivalent to them being abused, being kicked out of their home, or being forced to carry a pregnancy to term against their will," stressed Allie Carter, advocacy and outreach director at the ACLU of Illinois.